Psychopath vs Sociopath

[General Income Tax]

This might just be pointless nit-picking, but I think the Psychopath trait should be renamed Sociopath. A psychopath, as in "psychosis", is someone who is not only incapable of empathy but also someone who is quite disconnected from reality. Think Son of Sam, Ed Gein or Albert Fish. These are people who are very often unintelligent, unaware that they process reality differently from others and often incapable of understanding or controlling their own emotions. They usually have a history of violence and juvenile delinquency, and notably suffer from psychotic episodes whereby they lose touch with reality. They are loners, don't function well or at all in normal society, lack a theory of mind and always fail to recognise other people as full human beings.

This differs vastly from a sociopath who can be quite intelligent, but isn't necessarily so, and even though they don't feel empathy in the same way as others they often function very well in society. Sociopaths lack any concept of anxiety which makes them perfect for "heroic" jobs such as surgeons, firefighters or police officers and indeed these professions see a higher than average rate of sociopaths compared to the general population. Generally speaking a sociopath isn't any more dangerous than a 'normal' person, but they are marked by their ability to hurt others without feeling any sort of remorse or guilt.

So unless RimWorld psychopaths are prone to psychotic episodes where they hear voices, see things that aren't there and lose the ability to connect actions with consequence then they aren't really psychopaths at all; they are sociopaths.

[Demon of Razgriz]

I disagree with one point you make, the rest sounds pretty good. The thing I disagree with is that psychopaths are unitelligent. Some psychopaths are extremely smart, that is how they managed to hide for so long and they can function very well, socially. That is how a lot of psychopathic serial killers get their victims.

[General Income Tax]

Originally posted by -SG1-Shadowscall:

I disagree with one point you make, the rest sounds pretty good. The thing I disagree with is that psychopaths are unitelligent. Some psychopaths are extremely smart, that is how they managed to hide for so long and they can function very well, socially. That is how a lot of psychopathic serial killers get their victims.

TV shows and movies popularized the idea of the 'intelligent psychopath', but it's largely a myth. When you're having trouble descerning reality from unreality coupled with an extremely poor understanding of your own emotions, you reeeeeeallly don't have much opportunity to develop your intelligence, and that's without even mentioning the /extensive/ history of childhood trauma that generally comes with being a psychopath. Which is why psychopaths are generally very unintelligent.

A sociopath can be an intelligent person, and like I said they often are, but being a sociopath doesn't equate to being intelligent, and vice versa.

I think the problem is that mass media has made the terms "psychopath" and "sociopath" interchangeable when they are very different pathologies. Think less Hannibal Lecter, and more jibbering low-life who lives alone in a hovel with sheets over all the windows because they think sunlight will kill them etc.

[Demon of Razgriz]

I guess you and I are using two different definitions of intelligent. I would argue that Albert Fish functioned socially and was very intelligent. He managed to lure Grace and convince her parents that he was a trustworthy person.

[Delita]

Sociopath and psychopath are the same things... Modern psychology makes no distinction between the two and actually uses neither term anymore. Anti Social personality disorder is the current term. And your post doesn't exactly match the reality of these people are like. Having this disorder has nothing to do with how someone behaves or what they're intelligence is, or whether they are or are not connected to reality. Ed Gein is not generally considered to have anti social personality disorder, he was legitimately crazy. Son of sam is good example though of someone who pretends to be crazy, but is really just trying to get sympathy. And Albert Fish is a tricky one since the records about him are extremely old and not all of it verifiable. Alot of it comes from himself too, and he was a known liar as well. People with anti social personality disorder do in fact get anxiety, they just don't get it in regards to concern for others. I could go on a bit more, but really you should do some more extensive studying into these subjects before trying to tackle something like this.

[MisterSpock]

In german medicine sociopath is the new word for psychopath. its mostly the same

[Spooky]

I kind of disagree completely aswell hehe, when I want to picture a psychopath character in rimworld all I need to think on is Richard Kuklinski.. the Iceman.

He has done full confessions after he got caught, not a very uplifting story and I cannot really recommend looking into it, but basically according to him he first killed a man outside a pool hall over an insult, and that was when he realised it meant nothing to him.

He then went on to become one of americas bigges killers working for the mafia, and in his own words (kinda) cutting up humans meant nothing, killing is easy.. why should I care.

I think he did this job for about 20 years before he got caught, and during that time he had a wife and two kids, was a highly functional part of society, and insanely good at what he did.

I think both dexter and the ice truck killer in dexter were based on this guy hehe, this is the kind of person I see in a colonist in rimworld with the psychopath trait.. someone that just isn't wired right so they don't mind cutting up dead bodys etc, they don't do it because they enjoy it, just to them it's the same as any job, like working in a meat processing plant killing and cutting up animals for our burgers etc hehe.

Edit: the kind of people you put forward as examples he actually hated with a passion, and may have killed one or two, lol.. even to a psychopath they were just abnormal.

[Spooky]

http://www.medicaldaily.com/psychopath-definition-may-be-different-you-thought-7-facts-about-psychopaths-361112

[Zubenelgenubi]

Here's a thread i made on the subject.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/294100/discussions/0/360670708795227015

Originally posted by Irish and Invisible:

TV shows and movies popularized the idea of the 'intelligent psychopath', but it's largely a myth. When you're having trouble descerning reality

The terms psychopath and psychosis or psychotic are only related in how they're spelled. And while media might like to show them as intelligent, it often completely misses how manipulative they are. In reality they're the last person you'd ever expect.

And in a way, the term sociopath was created just to distinguish from the unrealistic hollywood version of psychopaths, which wasn't accurate to begin with. The terms are treated as the same condition by mainstream psychology.

[knuckador]

I was taught in psych 1a (been a while though) that psychopaths are born psychopaths due to brain conditions while sociopaths choose to do so because they're ♥♥♥♥♥♥-up people with ♥♥♥♥♥♥-up lives (in laymans terms)

basically a nature vs. nurture thing is the only real difference... sociopaths are generally more intelligent because they don't have any brain disorders inhindering their I.Q.

sociopaths are generally better at planning

[Ficelle]

Everyone and every psy has his own defintion, depending of their school, what they learned, in which era, what they think, what they have seen in media, whatever...

Ive been diagnosed psychopath like 10 years ago (granted, only 1 psy, just to know, and never confirmed or infirmed with another...).

I still think psys are like blind people speaking about colors anyway...

So, most of what is said is mostly blablabla about what everyone thinks the true definition is, if there is any...I doubt there is one in fact.

[Readynailer]

Edgy kid thinking he knows what hes talking about

[Zubenelgenubi]

Originally posted by knuckador:

I was taught in psych 1a (been a while though) that psychopaths are born psychopaths due to brain conditions while sociopaths choose to do so because they're ♥♥♥♥♥♥-up people with ♥♥♥♥♥♥-up lives (in laymans terms)

Those are more commonly called primary and secondary psychopaths.